SIR Terry Leahy, the chief executive of Tesco, received a 15% boost to his salary and benefits in the past year, according to figures due out today.

His annual pay-out of &#xA3;2.8m was just the tip of the remuneration iceberg and part of a multi-million pound rewards package showered on staff by Britain's biggest grocer.

According to Tesco's annual report, Tesco's 220,000 staff have shared &#xA3;148m through incentive bonuses and share schemes, including &#xA3;10m for the Tesco board.

About &#xA3;32m of the bonuses have gone to 3,000 executives, including store managers and executives at Tesco's Hertfordshire head office.

The bumper reward for the supermarket's staff came in a year during which Tesco reported a 15% rise in its profits to &#xA3;1.4bn.

In the six years since Sir Terry's arrival, Tesco has grown group sales by 91% and underlying profits by 87%. It has won 3.3 million new customers in the UK and more than trebled non-food sales.

Figures in the annual report show that Sir Terry's basic salary was raised to &#xA3;916,000 in the year to February 22 compared with &#xA3;842,000 in 2002, with additional benefits growing from &#xA3;25,000 to &#xA3;65,000 in the same period.

Other pay and bonus-related perks saw his total package grow 15% to &#xA3;2.8m last year from &#xA3;2.4m in 2002.

Tesco said all its board level directors would be keeping their bonuses in shares, which have to be held for a minimum of between two and four years and are exposed to fluctuating share prices.

In a statement, Tesco said, "Remuneration for the main board reflects the highly competitive environment in retail and the need to recruit and retain the best people.

"An independent remuneration committee approves rewards, linking them to challenging long-term performance targets. If these targets are not met, the rewards diminish."

Tesco, which is based in Cheshunt, has pursued a strategy of rapid expansion in the past decade which has seen it overtake Sainsbury's as the nation's favourite supermarket.

Last year the company opened 62 new stores in the UK and 18 new hypermarkets overseas.

About 21,000 jobs were created around the world, including 11,000 in the UK.